Written By Admin
on
Thursday, June 9, 2016
|
7:25:00 AM

Beef is high in saturated fat.

Rewarding yourself with a steak after a stressful day at work can be detrimental to your health. Beef contains harmful fats that throw your cholesterol levels out of whack, increasing your risk of developing heart disease. In addition, beef is also high in calories, which can increase your chances of gaining weight. Opt for a healthier alternative to reduce the amount of harmful fats and calories you consume.

Increased LDL

Beef has a high amount of saturated fat, which harms your heart. Saturated fats elevate low-density lipoprotein, a bad form of cholesterol. LDL can build up in the insides of your arteries, causing narrowing, which requires your heart to work harder. The strain on your heart not only elevates your blood pressure, but it also puts you at risk of having a heart attack. You should not get more than 10 percent of your daily calories from saturated fat, according to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010.

Lower HDLConsuming too much beef further damages your heart by altering your good-to-bad cholesterol ratio. Hihgh-density lipoprotein is the good cholesterol that transports LDL to your liver, where enzymes break it down and get rid of it through waste. When your HDL levels become too low, LDL concentrations continue to rise, increasing your chances of cardiovascular disease.

Weight Gain

Because beef has a high concentration of fat, it is high in calories. Three ounces of beef has up to 200 calories, but many restaurant portions are double or triple that size, further increasing the calories you consume. Gaining weight means that you are ingesting more calories than your body can use. Having an abundance of 3,500 calories in your diet can lead to 1 pound of weight gain. As an example, if you include 3 ounces of beef in just four meals per week, you consume enough calories to gain 1 pound of body weight in about a month.

Healthy Alternatives

Shave nearly 20 calories from your meal and cut your saturated fat intake in half by swapping 3 ounces of beef for the same amount of skinless chicken breast. If you want a heartier type of meat, opt for goat meat, which is a naturally lean red meat. Three ounces of goat meat have 120 calories and less than 1 gram of saturated fat. When you do decide to splurge and have a steak, opt for lean cuts, such as tenderloin or sirloin. If you prefer ground beef, select varieties that are greater than 80 percent lean, to further cut down on fat and calories.(source)